Using LibGuides: LibGuide Training

Welcome to the video training for University Libraries LibGuides! To begin this training, please have your supervisor place an LibGuide account creation request ticket with your name, email and Onyen, Once your account has been created, you will receive an email letting you know that you can begin the training.

Please work through these videos and refer to other pages in this LibGuide if you would like more in-depth information on topics. Please work through each video. The videos are meant to be follow along guide to LibGuides.

You can also access training material in a non-video format on ScribeHow. This self-paced asynchronous training pathway gives step by step instructions on LibGuides training.

You will be tasked with creating a sample LibGuide after completing this training series, so we recommend following along with the videos and working on your own new LibGuide as you watch the videos.

If you have any questions please email nkburm@email.unc.edu.

This video serves as a guide to setting up your LibApps account so that you can start working on LibGuides. You will need to know your ONYEN information and come up with a new, LibApps-specific password.

Login

1. Go to the LibApps login page.
2. Use your email address and password to login.
3. Go to the LibGuides dashboard by clicking on LibGuides under My LibApps in the center of the page or by selecting LibGuides from the blue drop-down menu at the top left.

Change Your Password

From the LibApps navigation:

1. Click on “My Account."
2. In “My Account," check email address and name to ensure they are correct.
3. Type new password in the Password and Confirm Password boxes to reset your password.
4. Note: You will need to enter your current password as well.
5. Click “Save.”

In this video, we will go over the homepage interface LibApps, noting some prominent features along the way.

In this video, we discuss different LibGuides groups and how they will determine your guide's layout.

In this video, we will set up our profile boxes that appear on the LibGuides you create.

Setting Up Your Profile

From the LibApps navigation, you can edit your profile box:

1. Click on “My Profile."
2. Edit the information to include your title, profile image, contact information, etc.
3. You can set up your “Profile Box” and your “Profile Page.” If you prefer to customize your profile, you can create a guide in the “Librarian Profile Guide” group.
4. After each change, click the blue checkmark to save.
5. Note: Students and staff can turn their public profile pages off as needed.

In this video, we discuss the LibGuides homepage and touch on some functionality that might be useful for you.

In this video, we will walk through the very first things you will need to do to create your own guide.

Creating Your Course Page/Subject Guide

1. Select “+ Create Guide” under LibGuides Shortcuts.
2. In the first drop-down menu, select “Copy content/layout from an existing guide.”
3. With the “Local Guides” radio button selected, click and type three asterisks [ *** ] in the search box.
4. Choose ***course page template, ***subject guide template, or ***Librarian Profile Template based on your particular guide type.
5. Create a Guide Name, which will appear at the top of every page in this guide.
6. Choose the Group Assignment that best fits your project: Course Page, Subject Guide, or Librarian Profile Guide. (Crucial step: this step sets the look and feel of your guide.)
7. Select Course Page, Subject Guide, or General Purpose under Group Type depending on the type of guide you’re creating.
8. Click on “Create Guide” at the bottom of the page to open your new guide.

Create a Friendly URL

1. Create a friendly URL by clicking the blue pencil next to the URL found under the title/description of your guide.
2. You can also set friendly URLs for each page within your guide by clicking the blue pencil next to Page URL located below the tabs.

In this video, we will discuss some logistics for setting up a new LibGuide before we add content.

We suggest that full-time librarian create the actual guide, and then assigns a student assistant as an editor; that way, only the librarian’s profile box appears on the guide.

In this video, we discuss what guidelines we have at the UNC-CH Libraries for maintaining accessibility standards within our guides.

In this video, we demo how to add text to your LibGuide.

Creating New Boxes

To add content to your page, add a new box:

1. Click the “+ Add Box” option in the column or area you want to add a box.
2. Choose a Box Name, Type (Standard is recommended), and choose its Position on the page.
3. Click “Save."

Entering content into a box:

1. Click “Add/Reorder” and select the type of content, or asset, you want to enter.
2. For details on the types of content items/assets and what they look like, visit this LibGuide.

In this video, we demo how to add images to your LibGuide.

When adding images via the Image Manager or Rich Text/HTML, always include Alternative Text that describes the main content of your image. You do not need to include “Image”/“Image of…” in your alt text.

In this video, we demo how to add external links and database links to your LibGuide.

In this video, we demo how to add a book from the UNC-CH catalog to your LibGuide.

Notes:

• Links for catalog records and catalog searches are persistent (i.e. you can copy and paste from the address bar).
• Links for Articles+ searches are persistent, but you have to add the UNC proxy prefix in front of what you copy from the address bar: https://login.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=

In this video, we demo how to embed a YouTube video into your LibGuide.

In this video, we discuss how to reuse a box from another LibGuide and all it entails.

Reusing Boxes

You can reuse any box created by any user in the LibGuides system, either by copying the box or linking to the box.

1. Click “Add Box,” and click on “Reuse Existing Box” tab.
2. Choose the Guide with the box you want to reuse, and select the Box to be reused. Tip: It may help to have the live/preview version of the guide you are borrowing from since box names can vary.
3. Choose a Box Name, and choose its Position on page.

Copying boxes vs. Linking to boxes

1. Linking to a box maps to an existing box in another guide; you cannot edit a linked box in your guide. If the creator of a linked box makes changes, they will be reflected in your guide as well. To link a box, leave the Copy option unchecked, then click “Save."
2. Copying a box allows you to edit a box created by another user in your guide. To copy a box, click the checkbox beside Copy and click “Save”

Link to *Master boxes for reuse for items like UNC’s Google Scholar, chat boxes, catalog search, citing, etc.

1. Click “Add Box,” and click on “Reuse Existing Box” tab.
2. Select *Master boxes for reuse as guide, select a Box to link, and its Position on the page

More About Boxes

Reordering/moving boxes

1. Under Page, select Reorder/Move > Boxes
2. Click and drag titles of boxes into the order you want on your page.
3. Click on “Save."

Editing/deleting boxes

1. Click X in top right corner of box.
2. Then click “Save."

Box Types

1. For details on boxes/assets and what they look like, visit this guide.
2. To see a guide full of boxes meant for reuse, visit this guide.

In this video, we discuss how to edit the column layouts and the ordering of your content, boxes, and pages.

Setting Up Your Guide's Pages

Homepage

On the homepage, you should always have two things:

1. A description of your guide including what kind of information is provided within
2. Your librarian profile box on the right side of the page

If there are tabbed pages in this guide, provide links to the tabs along the top. Example:

• Your first tab - explanation of what is on this tab
• Your second tab - explanation of what is on this tab
• Your third tab - explanation of what is on this tab

Pages

Side navigation tabs represent pages within a guide. Choose a short name that describes the content on each tabbed page. To create a new tab in your guide:

1. Click on the + symbol next to your Home tab.
2. Page Type should always be set to Regular.
3. Choose a short Page Name.
4. Leave Position as a top level page for this page to be in your guide’s row of tabs, and click “Save."
5. You can use Draft Mode for guides that are already live on the library site.

Publishing and Sharing

Your guide needs to be made public for anyone to view it. There are two main steps in the process:

1. Updating publication status in LibGuides
2. Adding course page or subject guide to UNC Library site

To publish your guide in LibGuides (see image below):

1. Click on Unpublished, located in the top right corner, and select Change Status & Share.
2. In the pop-up window, select “Published” in the Publication Status drop-down menu then click “Save."
3. If you want your guide to be accessible via a direct link only that you can share as needed, set Publication Status to “Private."

To add your guide to the UNC Library website:

1. For subject guides or course pages, add the appropriate related subject by clicking the blue arrow next to (located below the title and last updated date on your guide).
2. Course pages will use the 4 letter course abbreviation while subject guides will use the subjects listed here.

In this video, we go over the general topics we discussed in previous training videos, and we discuss your assignment to practice all that you've learned.

Create a Sample LibGuide

• After following along with the videos you should have a LibGuide that meets these qualifications: 
  • It is a guide in the Internal Staff guide group.
  • It has a friendly URL.
  • It has two tabs of content.
  • It includes the following:
    • Text with headings that follow UNC-Chapel Hill's Best Practices
    • Image(s) with alt text
    • A link to a database
    • A link to a non-UNC-affiliated webpage
    • An embedded YouTube Video
    • A book from the Catalog
    • A box reused from another LibGuide

Once you finish creating a sample LibGuide with the specifications listed above, please email nkburm@email.unc.edu with a link to your LibGuide. Nora will get back to you about whether or not you successfully completed UNC-Chapel Hill's LibGuide training.